Last October, when Artem Uss was arrested in Milan on charges of illegally purchasing military technology in violation of sanctions against Russia, illegally reselling oil on the black market and laundering millions of dollars – the Kremlin took the trouble, directly, to ask Italy to send him back to Russia. Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, intimated: “Russian diplomatic missions will do their best to protect the interests of Uss, detained in Italy.” It was the first test for the Meloni government: he would have extradited Uss to the United States – where the FBI arrest warrant had come from – or to Moscow, as had happened in similar circumstances during the Conte government.
The test has passed without damage, so far. The Milan Court of Appeal, with a decision behind several technicalities, recognized the disputed charges of oil smuggling from Venezuela to China and Russia, and the evasion of sanctions and bank fraud (not those of smuggling military technology from US to Russia nor to recycling). This means that Uss can be handed over to Washington – even if the defense can still appeal to the Cassation and for now Uss remains under house arrest in Italy.